▪ I. shingle, n.1
(ˈʃɪŋg(ə)l)
Forms: 3 scincle, 3–6 shyngle, 4 schingel, schingle, schyngil, scingle, shyngel, -yl, singel, 4–6 schyngle, shingell, 5 chyngle, chyngyl, 5–6 schyngyl(l, shingil(l, shyngul(l, 6 s(c)hengle, shengyll, shyngyll(e, syngle, 6–7 single, 7 shingelle, 4– shingle.
[ME. scincle, shyngle, app. representing (? through an AF. modification) L. scindula, later form of scandula, commonly held to be due to the influence of Gr. σχινδαλµός.
L. scindula is represented in Germanic by OHG. scindala, scintila, MHG. schintel, (also mod.) schindel, MLG. schindele, MDu. schindel: cf. shindle. L. scandula passed into Romanic as F. échandole, It. scandola.]
1. a. (a) A thin piece of wood having parallel sides and one end thicker than the other, used as a house-tile.
| c 1200 Vices & Virtues 95 Ðe faste hope..is rof and wrikð alle ðe hire bieð beneðen mid ðe scincles of holie þohtes. c 1305 Land Cokaygne 57 in E.E.P. (1862) 157 Þe scingles alle Of cherche cloister boure and halle. 1335–6 in Bayley Tower Lond. (1821) App. i. p. ij, Item in defectibus aulæ domini regis in coopertura, shyngles, coquinæ, pistrinæ. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clxviii. (Bodl. MS.), The laþþe..is nailed þwarteouer to þe rafters and theron hongeþ sclattes, tile, and schingels. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 610/13 Scindula, a shyngul. 1510 Stanbridge Vocabula (W. de W.) B iv b, Scandula, a shyngylles [sic]. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 106 Shingles..are to be cutte betwixte midde Winter, and the beginning of the Westerne Windes. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Ripia, a lath, a single. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. 214 Shingles are to be preferred before Thatch. 1785 Gentl. Mag. LV. ii. 49 The houses are almost all of wood, covered with the same; the roof with shingles. 1817–8 Cobbett Year's Resid. Amer. (1822) 317 Your house..covered with cedar shingles. 1886 Ruskin Præterita I. 299 The Jura cottage..is covered with thin slit fine shingles. |
(
b)
collect. sing.| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 5874 Arthour smot on hem, saunfaile, So on þe singel doþe þe haile. c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 481 Couert oue tiel ou cene, Hilde with tile or with schyngle. c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. lxxv, Heled weel with shyngul, tile, or broom. 1552 in Archæol. Cant. (1872) VIII. 128 For makyng vj thowsen of schyngle & iiij honder xxix s. 1557 in Shropsh. Par. Docum. (1903) 58 Re'd of mr Vicar for olde Shengle vi{supd}. 1575 Ibid. 65 For on thowsand of shyngle xviiis. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 132 Their roofs of shingle or of thatch. 1899 Baring-Gould Vicar of Morwenstow ix, The roof was covered with oak shingle. |
b. fig. phr. (
orig. Australian
colloq.).
a shingle short: ‘a tile loose’: said of one who is mentally deficient.
| 1852 Mundy Antipodes III. i. 17 Let no man having, in colonian phrase, ‘a shingle short’ try this country. 1885 Mrs. C. Praed Head Stat. xviii. II. 6 I've been given to understand that poets are usually a shingle short. 1957 J. Frame Owls do Cry 26 Francie Withers has a brother who's a shingle short. 1966 P. White Solid Mandala 82 He accepted Arthur his twin brother, who was, as they put it, a shingle short. 1968 Southerly XXVIII. 3 Royal said: ‘I reckon we're a shingle short to 'uv ended up on the Parramatta Road.’ |
c. gen. A piece of board. (
Cf. shingle-board.)
| 1825 Scott Betrothed ii, A long low hall, built of rough wood lined with shingles. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 150 A piece of shingle, which he was pretending to whittle, after the fashion of your ‘nait'ral born’ Yankee. 1844 Cath. Weekly Instr. 114 The hut was low, built of shingles. 1894 E. Banks Campaigns Curios. 143, I had neglected to provide myself with a shingle, with small holes, in which to place my flowers, to make them stand upright. |
d. U.S. A small sign-board.
to hang out (or set up) one's shingle, to begin to practise a profession.
| 1847 J. M. Field Drama in Pokerville (Bartlett 1860), The ‘No Admittance!’ which frowned from a shingle over the door. 1865 Holland Plain Talk iv. 131 When a boy changes his roundabout for a coat, he is ready to ‘stick out his shingles’. 1879 Tourgee Fool's Err. i. 10 He studied law..and hung out his shingle. 1944 V. W. Brooks World of Washington Irving xvi. 308 Catlin hung out his shingle as a portrait-painter and made a little money for his next trip. 1963 J. N. Harris Weird World Wes Beattie i. 8 He had hung up his shingle and commenced the practice of criminal law in the lower courts. 1977 Time 22 Aug. 48/2 Any academic can set up his shingle and be a literary critic. |
e. A style of cutting women's hair short, as in the bob, but with the back hair shingled (
cf. shingle v.
1 2 a). Also, hair cut in this way.
| 1924 Hairdressing Feb. (caption), Based on the ‘shingle’. 1927 F. E. Baily Golden Vanity xvii. 265 Doris powdered her face, combed her dark shingle, lit a cigarette, and picked up her beef cubes. 1945 N. Mitford Pursuit of Love xx. 172 She had a short canary-coloured shingle (windswept) and wore trousers. 1975 G. Howell In Vogue 13/1 The small pitted cloche brought in the bob, which became the ‘shingle’ or the ‘bingle’ of the twenties. |
2. a. attrib. and
Comb., as
shingle-laden,
shingle-laying,
shingle-maker,
shingle-wise;
shingle effect (sense 1 e);
† shingle-board = sense 1, 1 c;
shingle cap,
net, a cap-shaped hair-net for preserving the hair-style in bed;
shingle-nail, a nail used in fixing shingles in building;
shingle-oak, (
a) the laurel oak,
Quercus imbricaria; (
b) the she-oak;
shingle-weaver,
-wood (see
quots.);
shingle wig, a short-haired wig cut in a shingle.
Several other compounds are given in Knight's
Dict. Mech. and the recent
U.S. dicts.
| c 1300 in Black Bk. Admiralty (Rolls) II. 192 Menu bord qe lem appele baryl bord ou *shyngel-bord. 1589 Hakluyt Voy. 286 The roofes..are couered with shingle boordes. 1637 Heywood Royall Ship 13 Lined with shingle-boards, or wainscot-plankes. |
| 1926 Vogue Late Nov. 85 A charming little *shingle cap for night wear. 1934 A. Christie Murder on Orient Express ii. xi. 146 She had on a shingle cap and I only saw the back of her head. |
| 1977 ‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See x. 152 Her blond hair was cut in..bangs on the forehead, a *shingle effect at the back of her head. |
| 1881 Chicago Times 14 May, The vessel is *shingle-laden. |
| 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xv. 279 *Shingle-laying is sometimes paid by the thousand. |
| 1792 in E. G. Ingham Sierra Leone iii. (1894) 46 Bakers, 4... *Shingle Maker, 1. 1836 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. iii, A shingle-maker's shed. |
| 1303–4 Acc. Chamberl. Chester (1910) 42 Bord⁓nail, *schingelneil, latnail. 1554 in Shropsh. Par. Docum. (1903) 55 Half a m of syngle nayle. 1867 Lowell Fitz Adam's Story 417 He had been known to cut a fig in two And change a board-nail for a shingle-nail. 1886 Morse Jap. Homes 79 Bamboo pins..are used as shingle-nails. |
| 1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances ix. 89 She had bought..three *shingle nets. |
| 1818 T. Nuttall Genera N. Amer. Plants II. 214 Quercus imbricaria (*Shingle Oak). 1889 J. H. Maiden Native Plants Austral. 15 Casuarina stricta,..‘Shingle Oak’, ‘Coast She-oak’. |
| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), *Shingle-weaver, a workman who dresses shingles. |
| 1928 Times 19 Dec. 15/7 After bathing the *shingle-wig was slipped over the dishevelled head. |
| 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 46 Scales..apt to be imbricated, or fixed *shingle-wise. |
| 1864 Grisebach Flora W. Ind. Islands 787 *Shingle-wood: Nectandra leucantha. |
b. passing into
adj. = (
a) consisting of, covered or built with, shingles, as
shingle house,
shingle roof; (
b) used in making shingles, as
shingle machine,
shingle saw.
| 1810 W. Irving Life & Lett. (1864) I. 245 More pleasing in the sight of Heaven..than building a dozen shingle church steeples. 1819–20 ― Leg. Sleepy Hollow Sk.-Bk. (1821) 299 The money invested in..shingle palaces in the wilderness. 1848–54 Webster, Shingle-roofed, having a roof covered with shingles. a 1850 Mrs. Browning Runaway Slave xi, When the shingle-roof rang sharp with the rains. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Shingle-machine, an American machine for riving, shaving, and jointing shingles, which is capable of making 30,000 per day. Ibid., Shingle-mill, a saw-mill for cutting planks or logs into shingles. 1868 Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869) 56 Board and shingle sugar-houses. 1882 R. Grimshaw Suppl. Grimshaw on Saws 235 One we know of is running a 42-inch shingle saw in heading 1500 revolutions per minute. 1899 Baring-Gould Vicar of Morwenstow ix, A shingle roof he would have or none at all. 1974 D. Sears Lark in Clear Air i. 19 Snoring with a shrill gutter like a shingle⁓saw slicing knotty cedar. |
▪ II. shingle, n.2 (
ˈʃɪŋg(ə)l)
Forms: α. 6–
chingle, 6–7
Sc. chyngill. β. 6–
shingle.
[Of obscure origin; the forms with ch-, which are somewhat the earlier and are mainly Sc. and East Anglian, suggest an echoic origin (cf. chink). The change of ch- to sh- is paralleled in the history of shiver v.2 The relation of this word to Norw. singl coarse sand, small stones, NFris. singel (large) gravel, is not clear.] 1. Small roundish stones; loose, waterworn pebbles such as are found collected upon the seashore. In New Zealand also loose angular stones in mountain country.
a. collect. sing.| α 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 556 Chingle and great stones being skorched in that fiery gulfe. 1603 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 517/2 Arenam et lie chyngill et lapides super ripas dicte aque. 1611 in Extracts Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1870) II. 327 To caus the fyscher boits to be ballastet..with chyngill onlie, and nocht with staynes. 1633 J. Done tr. Aristeas' Hist. Septuagint 51 In the Superficies..was represented..the Flood Meander,..in the Channell of which, one might see a Splendor of Precious Stones, representing his rowling waues, which Chingle was of Carbuncles [etc.]. 1787 W. H. Marshall Provinc. Norfolk (E.D.S.), Chingle, gravel, free from dirt. 1798 Statist. Acc. Scot. XX. 27 The surface is not above a foot or 18 inches from the chingle. 1807 J. Headrick Arran 232 This stratum is not visible on the sea beach, being probably covered with chingle or stones. |
| β 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 627 The shores..are for the most part sandy, but only in some points there is some shingle cast up. 1717 S. Sewall Diary 28 Sept., Not to fetch any more Shingle from the point, to mend the Causey. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), Ramsey, in the Isle of Man,..standing upon a beach of loose sand, or shingle. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 271 A violent and transient rush of waters which tore up the soil to a great depth, excavated valleys, gave rise to immense beds of shingle. 1867 ‘Ouida’ Cecil Castlemaine, etc. 239 In dashed the bay through the park-gates, sending the shingle flying up in small simoons. 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. ii. ii. §6. 155 In shingle the stones are coarser, ranging up to blocks as big as a man's head or larger. 1894 Crockett Raiders 116 The swell broke upon a beach of shingle and sand. 1900, etc. [see shingle-slip below]. 1944, etc. [see shingle-slide below]. 1959 Tararua XIII. 46 The word shingle itself is given an unusual meaning in New Zealand. In standard usage it refers only to the small roundish water-worn stones of the seashore or rivers. We use it also of moderately-sized, angular stones, such as in fact are found in shingle slides. |
b. collect. pl. (Locally the name of a pebbly beach or bank;
cf. quot. 1577 in 2 β.)
| 1574 W. Bourne Regim. Sea xxii. 60 At the comming from Portland you shall haue .35. fadoms, and small shingles. a 1608 Dee Relat. Spirits i. (1659) 115 The shingles, through the which the Spring runs. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Shingles,..the Name of a Shelf, or Sand-bank in the Sea, about the Isle of Wight. 1803 Southey in Ann. Rev. I. 9 A neck of land chiefly composed of sand, shingles and drift wood. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xviii, The way..was a happy interchange of bog and shingles. 1842 Sedgwick in Hudson's Guide Lakes (1843) 188 The overlying..beds of limestone are..separated from the..beds of slate, by masses of conglomerate or cemented shingles. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxv, Just as the nymph..stepped out of the little caravan on to the shingles. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. i. iv. 79 The shingles here do not afford a landing-place. |
2. A beach or other tract covered with loose roundish pebbles.
| α 1513 Douglas æneis x. vi. 34 In the schald scho stoppis, and dyd stand Apon a dry chyngill or bed of sand. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Chingly, abounding in small stones, etc., commonly applied to a newly repaired road. The loose pebbly beach is called the chingle or shingle. |
| β 1577 Harrison England i. ix. 22 b, in Holinshed, We meete with y⊇ fal of a water neere to S. Catherins chapple as we sailed by y⊇ Shingle. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 200 A world of Sea-stones on the shingle. 1822 T. Mitchell Com. Aristoph. II. 182 He has robb'd the sea-shore, And has hived such a store As would give a large shingle its coating. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Ability Wks. (Bohn) II. 34 The enchantments of barren shingle and rough weather. |
3. attrib., as
shingle-ballast,
shingle bank,
shingle beach,
shingle-bed,
shingle-stone,
shingle track,
shingle trap;
shingle-covered,
shingle-formed adjs.;
shingle slide,
-slip N.Z. (see
quot. 1944);
shingle-tramper (see
quot.).
| 1801 Naval Chron. V. 270 The many instances of injury arising from the use of *shingle ballast. |
| 1888 F. Cowper Cædwalla i. 15 The scrub on the top of the *shingle bank. |
| 1834 Marryat Peter Simple xxvi, Oh! with what joy did I first put my foot on the *shingle beach at Sallyport. |
| 1861 C. C. Bowen Poems 76 Ghastly white beneath, Lay stretched the rough, drear *shingle-bed. 1881 Rep. Geol. Explor. New Zealand 123 The Dart flows along a wide shingle-bed. |
| 1875 W. M{supc}Ilwraith Guide Wigtownshire 51 A narrow, *shingle-covered opening in the cliffs. |
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 116 Masses of *shingle-formed conglomerate. |
| 1944 Mod. Junior Dict. (Whitcombe & Tombs) (ed. 7) 365 *Shingle-slide or -slip,..a term used in New Zealand for (steep) mountain-sides covered with loose, sliding stones, in England called ‘screes’. 1959 A. McLintock Descr. Atlas N.Z. 32 With the baring of the ground between the tussocks, sheet and wind erosion have taken place and there has been a speeding up of the creep of the mantle of rock waste, resulting in the formation of new shingle slides and an increase in area of old ones. |
| 1900 Canterbury Old & New 190 One of the most characteristic features of our Canterbury Alps is afforded by the numerous ‘*shingle-slips’ formed by the weathering of rocks. 1971 N.Z. Listener 19 Apr. 56/4 The creek beside the shingle slip just below the confluence. |
| 1614 T. Gentleman England's Way 25 Their haven [viz. Southwold, Suffolk] is..stopped vp with Beach and *Chingle-stone. 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man 31 One of the round shingle stones. |
| 1886 Kendall Poems 201 He camps by the side of a *shingle track. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Shingle-tramper, a coast-guard man. |
| 1839 Civil Eng. & Arch Jrnl. II. 85/2 Shingle has a decided tendency to drive eastward, and convert harbours lying in its course into what have been designated ‘*shingle traps’. |
▪ III. shingle, n.3 Erron.
f. single n. 1 b.
| 1660 Howell Parly of Beasts 51 That lovely white Hinde (though she hath som black spots about her shingle)..she was once a Woman. 1661 Morgan Sph. Gentry i. vi. 81 [The tail] of the Hart is the Tail, and the Ro-buck or Deer the Shingle. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. vii. 133/1. |
▪ IV. shingle, v.1 (
ˈʃɪŋg(ə)l)
[f. shingle n.1] 1. trans. To cover, roof (a house, etc.) with shingles.
| 1562 Withals Dict. 42 b/2 Scandulo, to shyngle. 1577 V. Leigh Surv. I ij, Whether..slated, shingled, or thatched. 1638 Bp. R. Montagu Art. Enq. Visit. A 2, Is your Church leaded, tiled, slated, shingled, thatched with straw or reede. 1796 J. Adams Diary 27 July, I rode up to the barn, which Mr. Pratt has almost shingled. 1833 [Seba Smith] Lett. J. Downing xxi. (1835) 124 He'll new shingle our old barn for nothin. 1865 ‘Artemus Ward’ Trav. ii. xii, When the Lion House was ready to be shingled. |
| transf. 1885 Harper's Mag. Mar. 533/1 The..walls and..roof are shingled with slate. 1891 Century Mag. Nov. 61 We constructed a low châlet.., shingling it with swamp grass. |
2. a. To cut (hair), properly so as to give the effect of overlapping shingles, by exposing the ends of hair all over the head; also
absol. U.S.; to cut (women's hair) so that it tapers from the back of the head to the nape of the neck; also
absol., to have the hair so cut.
| 1857 Holland Bay Path 232 (Thornton Amer. Gloss.), I'm great on cutting hair. I don't suppose there's anybody in the settlement can shingle like me... By the way, don't you want your hair cut? I don't know how I'm going to get along, unless you do have it jest shingled. 1864 R. F. Burton in Anthropol. Rev. II. 51 To ‘shingle off’ their hair as closely as possible. 1909 K. D. Wiggin Susanna & Sue xii, It's kind of pityish to have your hair shingled. 1924 Punch 17 Sept. 319 It moves me not if Araminta shingles Her locks, or Evelina has them bobbed. 1926 Galsworthy Silver Spoon iv. 25 Fully dressed for the evening, she had but little on, and her hair was shingled. Ibid., She had been one of the first twelve to shingle. 1976 M. Green Children of Sun (1977) v. 207 Women began to bob their hair immediately after the war, were shingling it by 1925. |
b. To cover like a shingled roof.
U.S.| 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. 11 A somewhat more than middle-aged female, with a parchment forehead and a dry little ‘frisette’ shingling it. |
c. (See
quot.)
U.S.| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3), To shingle, to chastise. A shingle applied a posteriori is a favorite New England mode of correcting a child. |
▪ V. shingle, v.2 Iron-manuf. [ad. F. cingler, ad. G. zängeln, f. zange tongs, pincers.] trans. To subject (the puddled ball) to pressure and blows from a hammer so as to expel impurities.
| 1674, etc. [see shingling vbl. n.2]. 1784 in Abridgm. Specif., Iron & Steel (1858) 13 Shingling, welding, and manufacturing iron and steel into barrs, plates, rods, and otherwise. Ibid. 365 The slabe, having been shingled..to the sizes of the grooves in my rollers. 1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 768 These loops are..brought to a white or welding heat, and then shingled into half-blooms or slabes. 1861 Fairbairn Iron 105 The old method of shingling the puddle balls..was to reduce them to shape by a heavy hammer called the forge-hammer or helve. |
▪ VI. † shingle, v.3 [? f. cingle, girdle, with assimilation to shingles.] trans. To girdle
round.
| 1621 T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 35 Till the gout is in their knees, or the dropsie doth painefully shingle them round. |